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US president Joe Biden for the first time publicly vowed to withhold weapons from Israel if its forces make a ground offensive into Rafah in southern Gaza.
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah ..., I’m not supplying the weapons,” Mr Biden, whose administration has repeatedly asked Israel for its plan to protect civilians in Rafah, said in an interview with CNN.
Mr Biden acknowledged that US bombs provided to Israel have killed Gaza civilians in the seven-month offensive aimed at annihilating Hamas. He said the US would continue providing defensive weapons to Israel, including for its Iron Dome air defence system, to respond to attacks from across the Middle East.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on Mr Biden’s remarks, but Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed the Rafah operation will go ahead, saying it must hit Rafah to defeat Hamas fighters there.
The Israeli Defence Forces continued tank and aerial strikes on southern Gaza after moving in via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, cutting off a vital aid route.
A looming humanitarian catastrophe amid Israel’s Rafah assault
Hamas said its fighters yesterday were battling Israeli forces in Rafah’s east and Islamic Jihad’s fighters attacked Israeli soldiers and military vehicles with heavy artillery near the city’s long abandoned airport.Israeli tank shells landed in the middle of Rafah wounding at least 25 people, medics said. Residents said an Israeli air strike killed four people and wounded 16 others in western Rafah.
The Israeli military said its troops had discovered Hamas infrastructure in several places in eastern Rafah and were conducting targeted raids in Rafah and airstrikes across the Gaza Strip.
The UN, Gaza residents and humanitarian groups say further Israeli incursion into Rafah will result in a humanitarian catastrophe.
A UN official said no fuel or aid had entered the Gaza Strip due to the military operation, a situation “disastrous for the humanitarian response” in Gaza where more than half the population is suffering catastrophic hunger.
Palestinians have crammed into tented camps and makeshift shelters, suffering from shortages of food, water and medicine.
“The streets of the city echo with the cries of innocent lives lost, families torn apart, and homes reduced to rubble,” Rafah mayor Ahmed Al-Sofi said, appealing to the international community to intervene.
Namita Singh9 May 2024 04:39
No more concessions to Israel in truce talks, says Hamas
Palestinian militant group Hamas said yesterday it would make no more concessions to Israel in Gaza truce talks.
Delegations from Hamas, Israel, the US, Egypt and Qatar have been meeting in Cairo since Tuesday. Citing a source familiar with the matter, Egypt’s state-affiliated Al Qahera TV reported early this morning that areas of disagreement were being resolved and there were signs that an agreement will be reached, without giving details.
But Izzat El-Reshiq, a member of Hamas’s political office in Qatar, said in a statement yesterday that the group would not go beyond a ceasefire proposal it accepted on Monday. It would also entail the release of some Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinian women and children detained in Israel.
“Israel isn’t serious about reaching an agreement and it is using the negotiation as a cover to invade Rafah and occupy the crossing,” said Reshiq.
Israel on Monday declared that the three-phase truce proposal approved by Hamas was unacceptable because terms had been watered down. It did not respond immediately to the Hamas statement.
The US said on Tuesday that Hamas had revised its ceasefire proposal and the revision could overcome an impasse in negotiations. Just a few hours before Hamas’s latest statement, Washington continued to say the two sides were not far apart.
“We believe there is a pathway to a deal ... The two sides are close enough they should do what they can to get to a deal,” US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.
Namita Singh9 May 2024 04:38
‘Very disappointing’ says Israel’s UN ambassador on US weapon halt
US officials yesterday confirmed that Washington paused delivery of a shipment of bombs to Israel because of the risk to civilians in Gaza.
Israel’s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, called that decision “very disappointing” but said he did not believe the US would stop supplying arms to Israel.
The United States is by far the biggest supplier of weapons to Israel, and it accelerated deliveries after the Hamas attacks on 7 October that triggered Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
However, Joe Biden has been under pressure from his fellow Democrats and growing campus protests to deter Israel from invading Rafah. His support of Israel has become a political liability as the president runs for re-election.
Namita Singh9 May 2024 04:35
Civilians in Gaza killed from US-supplied bombs, acknowledges Biden
Joe Biden acknowledged that “civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of” US-supplied bombs.
Mr Biden’s comments, his starkest to date, increase the pressure on Israel to refrain from a full-scale assault on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge after fleeing combat farther north in Gaza.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on his remarks, but Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the Rafah operation would go ahead. Israel says it must hit Rafah to defeat thousands of Hamas fighters it says are there.
Israel, meanwhile, continued tank and aerial strikes on southern Gaza after moving in via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, cutting off a vital aid route.
Namita Singh9 May 2024 04:15
Biden says US won’t supply weapons for Israel to attack Rafah
President Joe Biden said that he would not supply offensive weapons that Israel could use to launch an all-out assault on Rafah — the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza — over concern for the well-being of the more than one million civilians sheltering there.
Mr Biden, in an interview with CNN, said the US was still committed to Israel’s defence and would supply Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other defensive arms, but that if Israel goes into Rafah, “we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used.”
Namita Singh9 May 2024 04:14
Killing of man in Egypt ‘linked to Gaza'
A Canadian man “of Jewish Israeli descent” has been shot dead in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in a suspected criminal case, a security source said, while a previously unknown militant group said it carried out the attack in reaction to the war in Gaza.
The Egyptian security source said the man had been killed “with the motive of robbery” and made no link between the shooting and the victim’s ethnic background.
But a message on Telegram by a previously unknown group called “Vanguards of Liberation” claimed responsibility for the attack as a reaction to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and its move to seize control of the Rafah crossing on Egypt’s border with the enclave. It named the victim as Ziv Kipper, accusing him of working for Israeli intelligence.
Jane Dalton9 May 2024 02:00
Rafah residents face ‘the fire of hell’
Recap: United Nations officials have warned that vital aid is being “choked off” after Israeli forces and tanks seized control of the main aid crossing in Rafah:
Jane Dalton9 May 2024 00:10
Palestinians ‘awaiting execution’ as pressure grows on Israel to agree ceasefire
Jane Dalton8 May 2024 22:15
Irish students win anti-Israeli fight with university
A student encampment protest at Trinity College Dublin is to end after management agreed to the demands of protesters wanting the university to cut all ties with Israel.
Visitors have been unable to access the historic Book of Kells since action began on Friday evening when the activists set up tents inside the campus of the prestigious institution.
University management met student representatives on Wednesday to discuss the situation.
In a statement, Trinity said it would complete a divestment from investments in Israeli companies that have activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and appear on the UN blacklist in this regard.
This process is expected to be completed by June.
It said it would “endeavour” to divest in other Israeli companies, noting that its supplier list contains just one Israeli company which will remain until March 2025 for contractual reasons.
Jane Dalton8 May 2024 20:14
